It's so frustrating that our school system here in the United States could be number one but is apparently in the mid-twenties as far as successfully teaching our children. My mom learned to read, write and figure in a one-room school house with very few extras. No science equipment, no field trips, no videos or computers. Just a teacher, some books, and some students.

I'm not against the extras. I enjoyed the field trips as a kid. But with the money we are spending on education I think we should be able to produce students who can rank number one. In California we are spending almost $10,000 per student (maybe it is more than that by now).

Meanwhile, private schools and home schools are producing superior scholars at a fraction of the cost of public education. How do they do it?

They don't have the NEA breathing down their necks, and they don't have the teacher's unions demanding more money for poorer results. If we got rid of the NEA and gave public education back to the local districts, the schools couldn't help but produce better educated graduates. Local control gave us students who didn't need to have achievement tests dumbed down.

If you are interested in this topic, I recommend you read a post about indifference in the public education arena: Politics, Education and Indifference